Think about plane crashes for a moment. Even minor ones, with minimal injuries and no fatalities, generate headlines and thorough federal safety investigations. Most often, valuable information is uncovered and air travel becomes ever more safe.

Unfortunately in Pennsylvania and across the U.S., medical errors and hospital negligence on a weekly basis generate enough deaths to fill up four large commercial jets. However, these mistakes remain unknown by the majority of people on our planet. Worse, the medical community appears to learn little from these tragedies, unlike pilots and airlines in the wake of air mishaps.

Sadly, these fatalities are predominantly unnecessary, as these medical mistakes are typically preventable. Complicating the issue is the difficulty in compiling and publishing hospital safety records, creating a dangerous quandary, as the public has insufficient information to determine the safest hospitals to use for treatment and care.

For example, around 40 times per week, surgeons operate on the wrong part of the body. It appears as many as one in four hospital patients will suffer some form of harm from medical mistakes. Should documented medical errors be listed with diseases and accidents, they would equal the sixth highest cause of U.S. deaths. Astoundingly, they would rank just ahead of Alzheimer's Disease as a cause of fatalities.

Tragically, some surgeons, classified as the worst of the worst by their peers, remain popular and in demand. One or more may lurk at most hospitals. The problem for the public is that, outside of the hospital walls, few people know of the track records of these surgeons.

Since few American hospitals publish their performance statistics, they often escape accountability. The unsuspecting public has little data to base an informed selection of a good, safe hospital of choice. Until this situation changes, hospital patients will suffer the same risk as before–and now.

Do you have any suggestions to help improve hospital safety? Should hospital performance statistics be compiled, tallied and published to the public at large?

Source: Wall Street Journal, "How to Stop Hospitals From Killing Us," Marty Makary, Sept. 21, 2012

Medical errors such as the failure to diagnose can lead to serious consequences including death. We handle cases that arise out of medical malpractice. For more information on these types of claims, please visit our Pittsburgh hospital negligence page.